Riche sighed deeply, lifting himself from his bow.
He slowly approached the left side of the desk and pushed slightly against the small swing door that led behind it.
Quickly, the door swung open and hit the bookshelf against the back wall, causing a loud crash to sound, followed by wobbly squeaking from the door's hinges.
Walking in front of the desk, he noticed the open book on the ground. He slowly bent down, reaching for it, but had an empty feeling inside of him that sorrowed him.
He didn't hesitate to blame himself. He knew he was the cause of so many endings, even the man's whose evidence lay in front of him.
They were endings he never witnessed…
Riche stood up, book firmly in his hands as he curiously began to flip through the pages.
After a few seconds, he came to a stop, noticing an oddity between the 117th and the 119th page; the page between them was missing.
He knew instantly what it meant, the page was the moment Mr. Celerins couldn't cross, the event where his existence perished, it was all in his Detail, the power given to him unknowingly.
When it came to Riche's Detail, the ability to transfer people into books, whenever a person failed to complete a book, there would always be a moment where they did. And in that moment, the page that matched it would be removed, displaying the failure of the one who tried to conquer the book to those who opened it.)
He slammed the book closed, causing dust to go flying into his nose, prompting him to sneeze.
Achoo!
He sneezed a second time, then gently set the book down on the desk. He stared at it for a minute, admiring its elegant golden font.
This book, it destroyed their family…
No, I can't think that. It wasn't the book that destroyed her family… it was me… all me…
If it wasn't for my Detail, that family would be living happily, not grieving over the death of someone dear just because some stupid guy in a hat wanted to live.
Damn you, you stupid Archivist! How dare you be so selfish!
Eventually, looking up, he stared into the small bulb that looked like it could give out at any second. Then, he looked back down, circling his small store with his pupils.
He sighed.
"Look at this place, these old wooden shelves, these old books left and right, nearly every book explored by someone who I didn't choose, they all chose me… blindly…"
He turned around, facing the emptiness of dusk outside, admiring the two lights that lit the pavement just outside his store, leaving the rest of the cobble down the road somber.
He slowly leaned back, spreading his elbows across the edge of the desk. His eyes slowly matched the darkness around.
My powers they've changed me. I used to have people in my life, people who cared for me, but I overwhelmed myself with a fear of death… now, I'm lonely… All because I hurt them…
He slammed his hand on the desk, causing the small lamp on the desk to fall over, and continued his thoughts.
Out of all the Details in the world, this was my fate… why? Why not something like time, fire, or even food? Controlling food would be so much better than this shitty fate of words… Fuck! Why even give me one?
Though he had been lucky to receive a Detail, being one of the thousands out of millions that received one, he felt empty with it. He wasn't blessed by 'luck' to receive his Detail; instead, it was misfortune. He couldn't avoid it, even if he tried throwing away his Detail; a worse fate would be brought to him. Simple death.
Who knew how his life would be if he had never received a Detail?
Taking the book, he headed behind the desk, where he got on his toes and put the book on the top shelf of the bookcase behind it.
After coming back down, he turned around and began tapping the desk repeatedly with his fingers, fidgeting as his thoughts deepened. Then, after around three minutes or so, he stopped tapping, then slid his hands to the right side of the desk, where a book lay just at its edge.
He wanted to get the thoughts of the newest death out of his mind, so he thought the book might help him escape as it had done for him in the past.
He grabbed the book by its spine, then brought it close to him and suddenly leaned back to a wooden chair that was placed just behind him.
The cover of the book was deep blue like the ocean. Similar to how the red book has a golden outline, this blue book has a similar silver outline, in the same shape and style. It bore the name:
'Why We Wandered'
by The Ruler
A story about two brothers who traveled the world of Lostasis in search of a journey to fulfill their duties to protect the world from the vicious organization that ruled the world under one man's dirty ambitions.
It was a clever little book. Riche liked it a lot. The open world and the newly found freedom one of the characters had, gave him a sense of comfort he couldn't find in his own life. It was something he wanted, he wished he could live free, he wished he could live… there…
But with his saddened life, full of changing others' lives just for the sake of his own, he knew he couldn't break free. He just had to accept that nothing would ever change…